Nicky Haslam is Britain’s ultimate interior designer. In his spare time he is a socialite, artist, cabaret singer, book reviewer, art editor, blogger and the author of two books: a panorama of his work entitled Sheer Opulence and
Redeeming Features, a memoir. Click here for more on Nicky Haslam and NH Design.

Bouquets and blubbing at Russian Vogue

Everyone is talking about the surprise demise of Carine Roitfeld as editor of French Vogue. But let us not forget that it follows on the Manolos of her Moscow counterpart, my friend Aliona Doletskaya, editor of Russian Vogue, for 10 years the smoky-voiced doyenne of la mode russe, whose resignation also caught the fashion world by surprise.

When I was in Moscow a couple of weeks ago, I was told that for days following Condé Nast’s announcement, the corridors of the mag echoed to the wails of stick-thin blonde Alionettes in the latest lbds, their triple-lashed eyes "poofy", as Architectural Digest’s Eugenia Mikulina put it, from blubbing. There was even a wall where the faithful could leave tribute messages and condolence bouquets.

A few days later, a great farewell party was held on the steps outside Gum, the famous department store in Red Square. As in some 19th-century opera, Aliona was seen ensconced in a forest of flowers, a wailing chorus of blondes in even-more-latest little black dresses ranged behind her.

The bells of St Basil’s tolled, the Kremlin’s cannons roared.

Above screamed a fly-past of private jets, babushkas prostrated themselves low on the granite pavements and priests intoned ancient anthems as the richest men and most powerful oligarchs in Russia queued to kiss Aliona’s hand, the hand that had, singly, put their wives or girlfriends on the fashion map…